


In which gunshot wounds are not always fatal

by zephsomething



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-21
Updated: 2015-10-21
Packaged: 2018-04-27 10:52:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5045518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zephsomething/pseuds/zephsomething
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So basically the ending of Life is Strange is the same as if you would sacrifice Chloe right up until the bullet hits Chloe’s stomach.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In which gunshot wounds are not always fatal

The smell of antiseptic is the first thing she notices, before she even opens her eyes. After that is a dull sort of throbbing pain that's well, everywhere, but mostly in her stomach. Or possibly starting in her stomach and then radiating out? It’s probably not important anyway. She blinks a few times and tries to sit up. Both her head and stomach disagree with that as does whoever is in the room with her from the sounds they make. The whiteness of the room is all she has time to notice before her vision is blocked with faces. Max and her mother’s are the first she sees then as she turns to look at them she notices other’s. Her step-douche, who honestly looks more concerned than she expected, and a few of what Chloe can only imagine are Max’s friends from school.

After that it’s a bit of a blur, lots of people fussing over her and explanations that she only half catches. From what she can piece together her confrontation with Nathan ended up with her being shot but the bullet didn’t hit anything vital and the noise of it attracted enough people and she got to the hospital early enough. The word lucky is said very often. She did however apparently miss quite a lot. Nathan is in police custody, as is some teacher, and everyone is bubbling with words Chloe is barely catching but her eyes keep being drawn back to Max. Max who looks so much older than she should, who Chloe hasn’t seen since Max left years ago, who is looking at Chloe like Chloe might disappear at any minute.

It’s not until a couple weeks later once things settle down at bit that Chloe ends up alone with Max. As awesome as it is to have her childhood friend back it’s mostly just weird. A lot happened, apparently, while Chloe was in the hospital recovering from a gunshot to the abdomen. Rachel’s body being found and buried properly, and David’s entire attitude changing were two of the major one’s. One heartbreaking and the other just flat out weird. Though nothing is as weird as the way Max looked at Chloe whenever she thought she wasn’t looking. They looks were varied and none of them make sense. So eventually Chloe decided this needed to end and dragged Max up to her room and leaned against the door with Max in front of her. “Okay spill, you’ve obviously got a thousand thoughts going on in that brain of yours and you suddenly show up after years of not even bothering to send me letters, just tell me what’s going on.”

“I thought you were supposed to die.” Max said her voice so quiet Chloe wondered for a second if she’d heard correctly.

“Well gee thanks for letting me know.” She rolled her eyes. “At least I know next time I want one of my missing childhood friends to show up all I have to do is get shot.”

“It’s not like that.” Max said looking almost pained.

“Well what’s it like then?”

“If I’m going to tell you then you’re going to need to let me get it all out.” Max said her voice going quiet again as her gaze dropped to her shoes.

“Yeah sure go for it.” Chloe shifted so she was leaning more comfortably and raised an eyebrow at Max.

“Okay, so in class before you got shot I had a, well like a vision or something.” Max started and stumbled a few times between the vision and Chloe getting shot but that was where her story veered wildly away from what had actually happened. Staring at the ground Max recounted a week that, she said, in this time line never happened but in the other one felt like months. A week where Max was able to change time and kept trying to fix everything and did it all to save Chloe. First from Nathan’s bullet, then from a train, then from herself in a different time line in which her dad was alive but she was dying, and then in the end she had to let her be shot to save the town from a massive storm created by her meddling in time. Chaos theory at it’s finest there. Max told her about other things that had happened in this time line, one’s that no longer happened. Her friend’s attempted suicide, stopped in the current time line by having answers almost immediately. A boy who kept trying to date her, who she wasn’t interested in anyway so she was kind of glad that in this time line he seemed more interest in some other girl since Chloe had been shot. Then she told her about the nightmares, about a place called the dark room that in this time line she’d never even seen the inside of but she could describe in great detail everything it held, about being trapped inside her own head, and about a dinner filled with people telling her it was all her fault. Eventually her voice got quiet and she spoke of standing by the light house with Chloe from the other time line, who she called Her Chloe. About Chloe begging her to save the town instead, save all those other people because they didn’t deserve to die for her. How her Chloe had kissed her goodbye and how she’d gone back through the photo to let her be shot. Throughout the whole explanation on thing stayed consistent. Max thought it was all her fault. Every bad thing in the other time line. Max could trace back to a choice she’d made. After the flow of words stopped Max backed up a couple steps and sat on Chloe’s bed. “I’m sorry, for, well for all of it. I’m sorry.”

“For doing what I asked and letting me get shot?” Chloe snorted walking over to sit next to her. “Max honestly I would have been hella more pissed if you’d’ve let the town die for me.”

"For screwing everything up. Every time I tried to help.” Max leaned forward her head in her hands.

“Max it’s not your fault.” Chloe reached out to touch her shoulder. “You got a power you didn’t ask for and you tried to make things better. That’s not a bad thing. Maybe you’re not a time wizard or something but you’re still you. Max Caulfield the kindest and smartest person I know.”

“You sound like, well, you sound like you.” Max muttered.

“Yeah I do that occasionally, it’s weird I know.” Chloe snorted again and then Max was practically in her lap and shaking like a leaf. Chloe wrapped her arms around Max automatically. She held her until the shaking stopped and eventually Max pulled away wiping her eyes.

“Sorry, I got your shirt a bit wet.”

“I think a wet shirt is probably the smallest of our current problems,” Chloe said getting up and going to her closet and changing said shirt. “And the easiest to fix. See?”

Max gave her a weak smile as she turned around again.

“Mum made waffles there are probably some left.” Chloe said holding out a hand to Max. “You coming?”

There was the smallest pause before Max nodded and took her hand. “Yeah okay.”

Chloe grinned tugging her out of the room and down to the kitchen. There was a lot they would need to talk about but that could wait. For now comfort food was in order.

**Author's Note:**

> As promised the version where Chloe lives! So hope you enjoy'd or something?  
> Again there was relatively little editing so lemme know if there are any obvious spelling mistakes


End file.
